77% of Irish people believe motherhood impacts a woman's career progression
Parent Being A A Career Woman’s Impacts People Majority Progression Of Irish The Believe
The majority of Irish people believe becoming a parent impacts a woman’s career progression.
That's according to new findings from Matrix Recruitment which surveyed more than 1,400 adults on a range of workplace issues including discrimination, gender pay gaps and sexual harassment at work.
77% of those surveyed this year said they believe motherhood impacts a woman’s career progression with 63% of respondents connected it to the assertion that women are still considered primary carers.
Over half (57%) said they believe employers have an unconscious bias towards women who may be considering starting a family, suggesting discrimination starts even before a woman becomes a mother.
Matrix Recruitment Manager, Breda Dooley, described the figures as an "unwelcome finding."
“This is not just an employer issue. Businesses, government and society need to work together to address this problem if we are going to make headway in this area,” she said.
Significantly, 40% of respondents said they feel they are the victim of pay discrimination, up considerably on last year’s figure of 18%.
“We don’t know if this finding is in any way related to the pandemic and the circumstances in which people are finding themselves,” Ms Dooley said.
“Some people have been furloughed while others have had their hours reduced. Many have had their salaries adversely impacted and perhaps they feel that the impact has not been felt by everyone equally in their organisation.”
Furthermore, the survey found that 22% of workers know a colleague of the opposite sex, in the same role, with the same level of responsibility, who is on a higher salary.
This figure, which was reported by 74% of women and 24% of men, is marginally down on last year’s finding (25%).
“These findings are consistent with the Matrix Recruitment surveys undertaken in 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, this indicates that the gender pay gap is not closing fast enough,” Ms Dooley said.
“Companies need to put strict policies in place that will help reduce gender pay inequality. Salary transparency, in particular, can have a key role to play in closing the gap,” she added.
Overall, Matrix Recruitment said its survey results show workplace discrimination across many areas is falling year-on-year. In 2018, 44% of adults reported experiencing discrimination at work. This fell by 2% last year and by a further 4% in this year’s survey.
The survey also found that the percentage of people who have participated in work seminars on the topic of equality and discrimination has risen this year, up 6% from last years figures to 38%.
However, a number of issues were highlighted in the survey including a rising incidence of sexual harassment at work.
One in five (18%) of respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment at work in this year’s Workplace Equality Survey, up 8% from 2019.
Of these, 80% were women, 19% were men and 1% identified as non-binary.
Inappropriate jokes are also flagged as an issue, with almost one in three (31%) reporting that they have been subjected to them at work.